The Real Deal New York

Condo prices at Ian Schrager’s Public hotel could set record

Condominiums at veteran hotelier Ian Schrager’s upcoming Public hotel on the Lower East Side are poised to break a sales record for the neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned.

When sales for the 11 condo units at the 25-story hotel launch tomorrow, asking prices of the apartments will start at $7 million, according to a source close to the project.

A four-bedroom penthouse condo at 15 Rivington Street holds the record for priciest sale of either a condo or co-op on the Lower East Side, having closed for nearly $5.1 million in 2008, according to StreetEasy. Therefore, the least expensive apartment at 215 Chrystie Street would surpass the Rivington Street condo for the neighborhood record.

The planned hotel at 215 Chrystie Street, near Stanton Street, will include 370 hotel rooms and 11 condos on the upper floors. There will be a mix of largely two- and three-bedroom apartments, and three of the 11 will be penthouses. The largest penthouse will hold six bedrooms, Schrager told The Real Deal.

A spokesperson confirmed that prices would start at $3,500 per square foot, meaning the smallest apartment would span roughly 2,000 square feet.

Schrager, along with Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron’s Ascan Mergenthaler and interior designer John Pawson, hosted a news conference today at the sales office at 51 Astor Place to provide more details about the project. At the conference, Schrager described the hotel as “tough luxe,” in that the building will be gritty as a result of its surroundings but the apartments will be refined. New interior renderings were also released.

The “affordable luxury” hotel chain opened in Chicago. In addition to the Lower East Side outpost, Schrager is also eyeing an unspecified Public location on the far West Side. Schrager said the West Side site would also feature condos.

Douglas Elliman Development Marketing is handling sales at the project, which is being developed with the Witkoff Group. The project on Chrystie Street was hit with a stop-work order from the city last month for “unsafe excavation work,” documents showed.